What if I lose clients for supporting Palestine?

by Cicely Belle Blain

TLDR: You likely will, and it’s worth it.

Before we answer this question, we should ask ourselves why we are asking it in the first place. In an era where companies are backflipping and somersaulting sideways to show their supposed solidarity with various marginalized groups, why is Palestinian liberation so contentious? How does a company decide to paint their entire storefront rainbow in June but remain silent or actively complicit in the ongoing oppression of Palestine?

There are numerous ways to answer this question, but for those of us who are small business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers, or organizational decision-makers, there are two key factors to consider – at least to start.

I’ll speak to my own complicity first. Growing up in the UK, I didn’t know much about Israel, and even less about Palestine, which was, of course, intentional. Britain occupied Palestine from 1917 to 1948, playing a pivotal role in the colonization of Palestine that continues today. If you’d asked me as a young person for my perspective of Israel, I would have said somewhere on the spectrum of neutral to positive. The intentional erasure of Palestinian voices in education and the media, coupled with the unquestioned pro-Israeli stance necessary to justify deeply entangled economic and political relations, leave the average person ignorant of the apartheid taking place.

Israel and pinkwashing

The positive image of Israel was strengthened as I began to explore my queer identity. This is due to pinkwashing, which Ashley Bohrer describes as a “play on a variety of racist and Islamophobic tropes [that] also impedes a thorough and nuanced analysis of queer and feminist liberation.” This narrative is bolstered by imperialist narratives of homophobia in their neighbouring countries. We are accustomed to measuring ‘progress’ through a colonial lens: legalization of gay marriage, attendance at Pride parades, and so on. Pinkwashing asserts the idea that Israel is a leader in human rights by positing itself as a safe haven for 2SLGBTQ+ people, particularly in contrast to its neighbours.

The reality is the antithesis because Palestinian people, among other marginalized groups, continue to die as a direct result of Israel’s power. If it is not safe for queer Palestinians, it is not safe for queers.

No excuse for antisemitism

The second thing I find important to hold, and that I think influences a lot of silence on the topic, is the tendency for antisemitism to infiltrate the conversation. With thoughtful and intentional dialogue and a nuanced understanding of power, it is possible to be both pro-Palestinian and supportive of Jewish folks. The division is an intentional distraction technique that increases fear of an outspoken critique of Israel and its supporters. As allies, we must remain informed and vigilant; contributing to antisemitism in the name of Palestinian solidarity is harmful.

Much of the (valid) critique of DEI consulting is that it does not drive radical systemic change and can become complicit in existing structures of oppression. When applying an anti-oppressive, liberation-centred lens to this work, we cannot be silent on issues like this. We cannot be complicit in maintaining the status quo by speaking in vague terms about inclusion and not directly voicing our condemnation of Israel’s actions.

Solidarity over scarcity

In saying all that, I understand that it can feel scary to speak out about an issue that has been intentionally constructed as divisive. This fear is confounded by the political and financial power that Israel and its supporters have. We may not be dealing with Israeli companies or organizations directly, but we know many Canadian ones are.

For entrepreneurs, consultants, creators, and small business owners, much of our clientele comes through word of mouth and our social capital. It’s nerve-wracking to make decisions that could negatively impact the efforts of our networking and relationship-building – particularly for those of us who’ve had to code-switch and mask and do tons of emotional labour to build a client base. Within capitalism, many of us are conditioned to do business with a scarcity mindset – feeling like there’s never enough and we must say yes to everything.

We deserve to feel financially secure, to be able to pay rent and provide for our families and communities. The fear we feel about speaking up is real because we know how tenuous the support of those with power can be. Big corporations and institutions who hire us as consultants, freelancers, artists, etc., can and do pull the plug at any moment to suit their own agendas. So, the desire to please them or appear politically neutral is tempting, not just to avoid discomfort but as a genuine self-preservation tactic.

This brings us back to solidarity. When we work in solidarity with others, we commit ourselves to a symbiotic relationship. The part that’s most difficult is re-wiring our brains to give these complex relationships meaning in a world where capitalism conditions us to expect instant gratification and immediate transactions. In a relationship with a client, we perform work and get paid. In solidarity and justice work, we do our part, make sacrifices, and commit ourselves to an intricate web of people and movements.

The scarcity mindset asks, ‘But how does that keep my business afloat?’ The abundance mindset responds, ‘with patience.’

When I reflect on my own business, I can see clearly how those mindsets have influenced my decisions. There have been several times when I have spoken out in solidarity with (or even made passing reference to) Palestine and almost immediately lost clients. I won’t lie; the first time rattled me. I’d been working with a big client, and the Director asked me for a call - I felt like a child being called to the principal’s office. I felt my people-pleasing tendencies try to kick in but instead readied myself with a firm and informed response. I consulted others on my team and in my network, double-checked the validity of the sources I’d shared on my social media and prepared notes for the call. I listened to their perspective, confirmed that my stance had not changed and cancelled their booking.

But ultimately, the underlying reason for the confidence I had in that situation was knowing we had plenty of other, more values-aligned clients waiting to work with us. In another instance, we’d been hit by an economic downturn. A long message from a client indicated their dissatisfaction with our pro-Palestine posts. We followed the same procedure: a calm, measured, informed response, but the loss hurt a little more.

An abundance mindset and a resistance to capitalist ways of thinking can go a long way, but sometimes, our material circumstances of scarcity can weigh heavily on our minds. Here, we come back to the power and importance of solidarity. While solidarity is not transactional in the capitalist sense – it’s not an immediate give-and-take relationship – it is a type of connection that creates space for everyone to be held when they need to be.

On the same day we lost a client, I received a message from a long-time connection-friend-collaborator expressing her admiration for my work. “Thanks for your writing and teaching. I read or listen to something by you almost every day and am so grateful. You explain so much,” she wrote. It warmed my heart and filled my cup, waylaying the fear of repercussion and scarcity.

This piece is not here to say, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t lose clients,’ nor is it to say, ‘Good riddance, you didn’t need their money,’ because maybe you did. Rather, it’s a reminder to invest in community in a way that aligns with your values and feel confident in the knowledge that if hardship comes your way, there are people who will have your back.